Flor Vásquez López

October 9, 2007
Posted October 17, 2007

El Imprarcial del Istmo
THREATENED

All reporters working for the Oaxaca-based daily El Imparcial del Istmo resigned a day after three of the paper’s media workers were murdered on the afternoon of October 8 while driving in the southern state of Oaxaca in a vehicle bearing the paper’s logo, according to news reports and CPJ interviews.

New York, October 9, 2007—Three media workers for the Oaxaca-based daily El Imparcial del Istmo were shot and killed on Monday afternoon while driving in the southern state of Oaxaca in a vehicle bearing the paper’s logo. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the attack today and called on Mexican authorities to conduct a prompt and thorough investigation.

At 1:15 p.m., an Equinox SUV with tinted windows chased and then blocked an El Imparcial del Istmo truck along a highway connecting the cities of Salina Cruz and Tehuantepec, according to Mexican press reports. According to El Imparcial del Istmo, unidentified individuals got out of the car, and shot the van’s driver Mateo Cortés Martínez and delivery workers Agustín López Nolasco and Flor Vásquez López at close range.

Assailants in an SUV pursued and intercepted a newspaper delivery truck bearing the logo of the daily El Imparcial del Istmo along a rural stretch of highway connecting the cities of Salina Cruz and Tehuantepec in southern Mexico, according to local news accounts. The attackers shot Mateo Cortés Martínez, the driver, and delivery workers López and Flor Vásquez López at close range, El Imparcial del Istmo reported.

Luis David Quintana, El Imparcial del Istmo’s deputy director, told local reporters that the newspaper had received several threatening e-mail messages and letters in the previous month, warning the paper to tone down coverage of local drug trafficking. Numerous staff members resigned a day after the murders, Quintana told CPJ.

Assailants in an SUV pursued and intercepted a newspaper delivery truck bearing the logo of the daily El Imparcial del Istmo along a rural stretch of highway connecting the cities of Salina Cruz and Tehuantepec in southern Mexico, according to local news accounts. The attackers shot Mateo Cortés Martínez, the driver, and delivery workers Vásquez and Agustín López Nolasco at close range, El Imparcial del Istmo reported.

Luis David Quintana, El Imparcial del Istmo’s deputy director, told local reporters that the newspaper had received several threatening e-mail messages and letters in the previous month, warning the paper to tone down coverage of local drug trafficking. Numerous staff members resigned a day after the murders, Quintana told CPJ.

Assailants in an SUV pursued and intercepted a newspaper delivery truck bearing the logo of the daily El Imparcial del Istmo along a rural stretch of highway connecting the cities of Salina Cruz and Tehuantepec in southern Mexico, according to local news accounts. The attackers shot Cortés, the driver, and delivery workers Agustín López Nolasco and Flor Vásquez López at close range, El Imparcial del Istmo reported.

Luis David Quintana, El Imparcial del Istmo’s deputy director, told local reporters that the newspaper had received several threatening e-mail messages and letters in the previous month, warning the paper to tone down coverage of local drug trafficking. Numerous staff members resigned a day after the murders, Quintana told CPJ.